Millions on others misfortunes (The King of Torts - John Grisham)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	The King of Torts - John Grisham
Date:	08/06/04 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convincing and gripping read

Disadvantages: None

I recently read a review extolling the virtues of John Grisham. I've known of this author for a while but have always thought him to be a political writer and of no interest to me at all. However, in the doctors a couple of weeks ago I found myself browsing the rack of second hand books they sell for charity and came across King of Torts for an astounding 25p. What better chance to try his work? I snapped it up (along with a few others) and as I had a long wait started reading it there and then.

Grisham starts the book with an account of a murder, another random killing of one black youth by another in a run down area of Washington. The murderer is easily caught and can't explain (even to himself) why he shot the other man, he ends up being a case of Clay Carter who works for the Office of the Public Defender. Clay has been stuck at this job for years, it's dead end and he's starting to loathe the amount of work he's putting in for very little money and no recognition. Add to the equation a fiancee who's parents think he's nowhere near good enough for her, and neither does she really, and Clay is feeling despondent.

Out of nowhere comes a call. A man wants to meet Clay, a 'fireman'. He has been employed by one of the major players in the pharmaceutical world, one of their drugs has a side effect that has only just become apparent. His job is to 'put out the fire' that could potentially damage his client. Clays recent client, the random killing, has been on this drug and the side effect is an urge for violence and murder. The deal is simple. The fireman gives Clay 15 million dollars for himself providing he can convince the families of several murder victims (the perpetrators have all taken the bad drug) to accept a multi million dollar payoff. In effect buying their silence.

And so the new King of Torts is crowned. Overnight Clay is transformed from a lowly public defender to the owner of a new
litigation firm, providing vast amounts of cash for people who have unwittingly taken drugs that have harmed them in some way.

In this book Grisham has taken an indepth look at the world of the mass tort lawyer. What's a mass tort lawyer? It's basically a compensation system. From shoddy housebricks to anti-arthritis drugs which give you bowel cancer, anything that goes wrong you can claim for. These claims are looked after by high profile lawyers who skim off millions of dollars in fees from the money the claimants are supposed to receive. Of course, those who have made the claim get money but the majority of the overall compensation payout will end up in the account of the mass tort lawyer.

As Grisham shows us, the mass tort world is not a nice place to be. It gives a realistic picture of greedy lawyers scrabbling for a piece of the action, the main characters (with the exception of Clay) are detestable people who will think nothing of the feelings of a terminally ill man if it means adding another wad of cash to their already sizeable bank account. When I say main characters, Clay is really the only main character in the book. There are plenty of other people involved in the tale but Grisham focuses on Clay and his actions. Clay isn't the sort of man at home in the mass tort industry, he has too big a consience to be continually ripping off people who are in a worse position than himself. But he is blinded by the money. He wants to win back the love of his one time fiancee (who goes on to re-marry) and the only way he can think of doing it is with hard cash. So he carries on.

Because of the constant drug and hospital references this book is reminiscent of a Robin Cook novel, all the more so because Grishams style of writing is so similar to that of Cook. He writes in a gritty way, this book is full of short expressive sentences adding to the element of nastiness and shock. While the book isn't full of descriptions of the
'he sat in a red sofa' kind, Grisham has a knack of making you able to see what he's talking about without launching into a full length narrative. Towards the middle of the book you can get a full mental picture of Clay based on seemingly irrelevant pieces of information, for example Grisham will comment on how Clay ran his hand through his dark hair immediately allowing you to add a mop of brown hair to the mental image you already have of the man. Very clever writing style.

His writing is also passionate without being overpowering. When he discusses the Lear Jets that the big knobs of mass tort buy to travel the world you can sense the displeasure in his writing, it's Clay who is disgusted by the immense wealth these men display but I have a sneaking suspicion that Grisham himself finds it tasteless. The book itself is exciting, not in a fast paced way but with a more subtle approach centering on Clay hunting down new mass tort cases and claiming them for himself. A lot of the excitement comes from the various sub plots that are running throughout the book, which I can't go into for fear of ruining your Grisham experience. There are sub plots a plenty. While the main storyline is around Clay and his new found career, you find yourself drawn into other happenings which all concern Clay but in a different way and with completely different outcomes. The loose ends are all neatly tied up at the end, with the ending itself being a surprise in its own right.

As a Grisham virgin I was unsure what to expect with this book. Even as I read as far as the first couple of chapters I couldn't decide whether I was going to enjoy it or not. My first impressions of him as a political author wouldn't go away, he has quite a stuffy writing style not unlike James Patterson but it's certainly enjoyable. Grisham manages to fill a whole 490 pages with 'legal stuff' without it being boring at all, there is little emotion involved
in the book apart from when Clay reflects on the lifestyle he is now leading without his fiancee. Very little in the way of sex scenes either, which is a bit of a bummer!

If you fancy reading this, the paperback version is priced at £6.99 from WH Smiths and such places. A cheaper copy could probably be had on Ebay or Amazon, failing that there's always the library who stock a wide range of Grishams titles.

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